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Her bottom lip quivers and tears start to fall down her cheeks.
“Why can’t you just love me?” she cries, looking up at me.
“Because that’s not how life works, Venus. You can’t force someone into loving you. You can’t trick and manipulate them into it because that’s not fair and it’s not real. Is that what you want? A love that you forced me into? A relationship with someone who’s in love with someone else?”
She wipes away her tears with the back of her hand, gasping as she shakes her head no.
I crouch down in front of her. “I’m not trying to be mean. I don’t understand why you did this, but we both know that the truth will come out eventually and paternity case results are public. Whatever situation you got yourself into, you’re extremely wealthy and you come from one of the most powerful families in Chicago, why did you think this was your only way out?”
She sniffs, hiccuping, and I walk to her bar around the corner to grab a bottle of water for her. I open it and hand it to her. She drinks down about half of it, finally gaining her composure.
“I wanted it to be yours,” she says softly, not looking at me. “I really did love you; I still do. I wanted a family with you and I think I made myself believe that if I got pregnant, you’d realize you wanted it too and we’d figure it out together.”
“I understand, but that’s not my daughter, is it?”
She fiddles with the bottle, biting her bottom lip. I can see it turning white around the edges of her teeth before she shakes her head no.
“No.” It’s barely a whisper but it’s there.
Relief washes over me. I stand up and pace the floor, trying to make sense of this. I may not have ever loved Venus like she loved me and we may have had an at times toxic relationship but this—I never imagined she’d do something like this.
“Whose is it?” She just shakes her head and starts to cry again. “Venus,” I say sternly, “I need you to tell me who the father is and why he doesn’t know.”
“It’s Mitchell.”
“Reardon? Mitchell Reardon?” She nods her head. “You gotta be fucking kidding me.” I laugh because I don’t know what else to do. “So my assumptions about you two were true when we were together?”
She nods her head again.
“So you and he had an affair when we were together. Why not just actually be with him? Why stay with me and cheat?”
“I didn’t want to be with him, I just… He showed me attention when you were pulling away and it just happened. I don’t know. It wasn’t an affair; it was like two times and he wanted more, but I told him I was in love with you.” She flops her arms dramatically, like she’s a bratty teenager trying to get out of trouble.
“And why does he not know that he’s going to be a father?”
“He does know. He doesn’t want anything to do with me or the baby.”
“He what?” That instantly gets my blood boiling. “He got you pregnant, knows it, and told you he doesn’t want anything to do with you now after being a complete dipshit to me for years because he wanted you?”
“Yes.”
“That arrogant, waste of—” I turn and start toward her front door.
“Wait, where are you going?”
“I’m going to find that piece of shit and make him take responsibility.”
I slam her door behind me and climb behind the wheel, pulling out into traffic and heading straight for Davenport Enterprises.
I march through the lobby, straight to the elevator, punching the button for the executive floor. I don’t stop for any pleasantries; I don’t even acknowledge Mitchell’s secretary who jumps out of her chair and chases after me down the hallway toward his office.
“Mr. Archer, he’s in a meeting!” she says in a high-pitched voice.
I turn the handle on his door and fling it open. It hits the doorstop and bounces back.
“What the fu?—”
I don’t give him time to finish his statement before I’m grabbing him by the tie and dragging him around his desk and down the hall toward Miles Davenport’s office.
